Chapter 2:

The Real Jesus

Section 1: Forming A Relationship with God

• How do we talk to God?

• How does God communicate with us?

• How did God communicate with people thousands of years ago?

PROPHETS!!!

• Elijah

• Isaiah

• Jeremiah

• Daniel

Elijah

• His encounter with the Lord, pg. 35

• See Handout…

Isaiah

• Period covered: 742-500 BC• There were three Isaiah’s who wrote the Book

Of Isaiah.• General Themes:

- faithfulness to God- Justice for the poor- Hope for the future- Messianic prophecies- God as Lord over all nations

Jeremiah

• Period covered: 626-583 B.C.

• Jeremiah and his disciples, including Baruch, wrote the Book of Jeremiah.

• General themes:

- Israel’s need for repentance

- Jeremiah’s struggles

- The New Covenant

DANIEL

• Period Covered: before the Babylon Exile, 6th century BC

• Author is unknown, writing around 164 BC, during the persecution of Israel by Antiochus IV Epiphanes

• General Theme: To give hope to those experiencing oppression and persecution

Presence of God

• We have all felt the presence of something or someone greater than ourselves .

EXAMPLES??

- A lightning storm- A tornado, hurricane, snow storm- In our friends and family- Natural things, such as birds, animals, etc…

God’s Revelation Through History

• There has always been some presence of the divine throughout human history. Dating back thousands of year to when nomadic tribes and Neanderthals roamed the Earth, there were paintings located sporadically throughout the world, only to mean one thing….

GOD WAS THERE FOR THEM, JUST AS HE IS HERE FOR US!!!!

Interpretations of God’s revelation has resulted in many different

religious traditions.

Such as: - The Greek gods

- Temples in Egypt- India’s early religious books of God

BUT…

Which most truly reveals God?

Summary

• God is revealed to us in many different ways, often in ways we least expect

• Belief in a supreme being can be seen throughout history and around the world

• Interpretation of God’s revelation has resulted in many different religious traditions.

• For Christians, God is revealed as one and is seen in the faith of the Jewish people

Section 2: Getting Acquainted with Christ

Is it possible to proves that Jesus existed? What kind of proof exists?

Two kinds of Proof:

1) Evidence from History

2) Evidence from Scripture

Evidence from History

• Tacitus: a non-Christian historian• Josephus: Jewish historian• Gospel of Thomas: rediscovered this past

century

Although the references are sparse, this does show that there was a man names Jesus who lived just after the CE began

Evidence from Scripture

• From the New Testament, we are able to learn about Jesus’ life through the behavior of the Apostles after Jesus’ death

Read pg. 45-49

Summary

• Both scriptural and nonscriptural evidence exists to support the historical existence of Jesus.

• The Bible is divided into the Hebrew Scriptures and the Christian scriptures. The Hebrew Scriptures contain 46 books while the Christian Scripture has 27 books.

Section 3

KNOWING JESUS TODAY

3 Ways:

• Through the Body of Christ on earth (the Church)

• Through studying the Sacred Scriptures

• Through prayer

1) The Church

• You can still enter into a personal relationship with Jesus just as the first believers did.

• You can touch him, talk to him, and hear him by faith and by participation in his living Body, the Church.

• The teachings of the Church can help us deepen our relationship with Jesus.

In the Scriptures…

• The Bible, written by human authors but inspired by the Holy Spirit.

What is a Literalist or Fundamentalist.

They are people who believe that God dictated every word of the Bible to the authors of different books and that the authors took down every word as God said it.

The Second Vatican Council

Taught, the “books of Scripture firmly, faithfully, and without error, teach that truth which God, for the sake of salvation, wished to see confided to the sacred Scriptures” (Divine Revelation, Ch. III, #11)

This means that the Bible speaks as a witness to faith, not as a simple historical record.

2) In Prayer

• Christ makes the invitation, but the response is up to you. You must be open to allow him free entrance so that you can respond to his call.

• There are many different forms of prayer, such as:

• The Rosary• The Mass• Morning offerings

No one way is perfect for everyone. Each person must find the most appropriate way.

Summary

• You can know Jesus personally through the Church, through Scripture, and through Prayer

• Parents and friends play an important role in introducing us to Jesus

• The Bible is the sacred book of Christians • Vatican II considers tradition and Scripture to be

a single source of God’s revelation• While we can know of Christ in many ways, we

can know Christ personally through prayer.